Kindly sponsored by the Barrow Cadbury Trust
Date: Tuesday 30th September, 08.00 - 09.00
Location: Executive Room 1, ICC
Speakers: Damian Green MP, Shadow Minister for Immigration Peter Kendall, President, NFU Chris Hannant, British Chambers of Commerce Sukhvinder Kaur Stubbs, Barrow Cadbury Trust
Chair: Simon Griffiths, SMF
Immigration has been at the heart of debates in British public policy since the late 1950s, when white indigenous workers rioted against Black West Indian immigrants in Notting Hill. The topic came to fore again with Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech a decade later. However, for the most part, immigration has peacefully and almost imperceptibly changed the UK, to the extent that the late Robin Cook could famously announce at the Social Market Foundation in 2001 that Chicken Tikka Masala had become the national dish. During these years, immigrants and their families have also suffered from discrimination and greater levels of poverty than other groups. In recent years, the post-war pattern of immigration from the Commonwealth has given way to immigration from the new entrant countries to the European Union. For some commentators, the perceived unmanaged nature of these changes has been profoundly unsettling. For others, in particular business leaders, greater immigration is necessary in order to fill skills gaps in the economy. It is this contrast of views that the event aims to discuss.